A group of scientists at Nagoya University, Japan, have developed a novel versatile DNA fluorescent dye. Named 'Kakshine,' after a former NU student of its members Kakishi Uno, it also means to make the nucleus shine brightly, since the nucleus is pronounced 'Kaku' in Japanese. Their study was published in Nature Communications this week.
The team succeeded in developing a DNA binding fluorescent dye with the pyrido cyanine backbone, which satisfied the three principal qualities required of such a dye—that it have high selectivity for DNA, ability to use visible light with limited phototoxicity, and be applicable to a wide range of organisms.
Adding to the central set of functions required for such a chemical, Kakshine and its derivatives are highly compatible with cutting-edge microscope techniques. The dye can achieve super-resolution imaging of mitochondrial DNA in living cells with STED imaging. Additionally, they also enable deep tissue imaging by two-photon excitation imaging, discrimination of different organelle DNAs with a single dye by fluorescence lifetime imaging.